Justin Hilliard of Cincinnati St. Xavier is the 11th verbal commitment for Ohio State’s 2015 recruiting class and the second linebacker, joining Nick Connor of Dublin Scioto.

He is the seventh recruit from southwestern Ohio in Urban Meyer’s three-plus years as head coach of the Buckeyes and the third from Cincinnati, joining Adolphus Washington (Taft) and Sam Hubbard (Moeller). That makes a pair of Greater Catholic League pickups for Meyer in as many years with Hubbard having been the top-rated player in the state last year.

Hilliard is only the second St. X recruit for Ohio State since John Cooper was hired in 1988, joining quarterback Robby Schoenhoft, who signed in 2005 and later transferred after losing a QB battle to Todd Boeckman.

Meyer said he wanted to put a dent in the perception OSU struggles to recruit in Cincinnati, but so far the results are mixed. The sample size is admittedly small for Meyer, but Jim Tressel averaged 0.64 Cincinnati players in his 11 recruiting classes while Cooper checked in at 0.85. Expand it to the metro area and the numbers grow to 1.2 for Tressel and 1.38 for Cooper. So far, Meyer is at .75 for Cincinnati and 1.0 for the metro.